It seems that Europe has decided to break free from America when it comes to cloud computing services, creating "Gaia-X".
A group of 22 companies from France and Germany is developing a new cloud, which will be released soon and hopes to help European countries free themselves from their dependence on the US for cloud computing services.
According to Reuters, the entity managing the Gaia-X platform will be registered as a non-profit company under Belgian law. The finance ministers of Germany and France will soon officially announce the progress of the project to the media.
The companies that have undertaken this project estimate that it will be ready to launch in early 2021 and hope that it will put an end to Europe's dependence on America in this sector.
If all goes well, Gaia-X will be able to compete with services such as Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Alibaba and IBM, which so far lead the field of cloud computing and data hosting services.
Both France and Germany have repeatedly mentioned the issue of this sovereignty and security, as their data is hosted on servers owned by Silicon Valley companies.
Recent geopolitical turmoil and trade wars between countries have worried European politicians, who no longer feel safe hosting their countries' data on servers in America and China.
Creating a more secure local Cloud environment will not only benefit European countries, but will also be in line with the European Commission's strategy for a single digital market.
The GAIA-X project was conceived in Germany and is led by Minister Peter Altmeier. Several companies and research institutes from different countries are currently participating in the initiative, including some big names such as SAP, Siemens, Deutsche Telekom and Bosch from Germany, as well as the French company Atos, which was previously headed by European Commissioner Thierry Breton.
